| QUEEN VICTORIA |
| CUNARD |
QUEEN VICTORIA being floated
out. (Photo courtesy of Cunard).
out. (Photo courtesy of Cunard).
Thus, while QUEEN VICTORIA may have sprung from a cruise ship design,
there have been significant modifications so that she cannot be called just a
cruise ship. Whether she can be called a true ocean liner is a closer question.
While she is designed to cross rough seas, with a 24 knot maximum speed,
she will be no transatlantic greyhound of the likes of the UNITED STATES
(40 plus knots) or even the current Cunard fleet - - QE2 (33 knots) and
QM2 (30 knots). However, the vast majority of ocean liners never came
near achieving such speeds. "Cunard has built more ocean liners than
everybody else and every time we build one it is slightly different. When QE2
was built, [people said]: 'What is this ship? Is it a cruise ship, is it an ocean
liner? What is it?' There is always a little bit of a 'what is happening next.'
Cunard continues to evolve. She will look like an ocean liner and as far as
our guests are concerned, she is an ocean liner, as far as I am concerned."
The technological differences between QUEEN VICTORIA and modern
cruises ships are, however, secondary. "She is all about style," says Marlow.
"This ship is going to be along the lines of a traditional Cunard ocean liner with
the grandeur, the elegance, and the whole feel I think will be very different."
To begin, Cunard has taken a number of the public rooms including the
library, the shopping arcade and the grand ballroom and made them more
than one deck high. "Included within the interior are some double and triple
height spaces, many more than you normally have in a P&O cruise ship,"
Marlow notes. "The difference in the height of the rooms really changes the
feel."
But, the fact that these rooms will be several decks high does not by itself
serve to give them an ocean liner feel. Many modern cruise ships such as
Royal Caribbean's Voyager-class ships have large multi-deck areas which,
while impressive, do not, and are not, intended to give the impression of an
ocean liner. (See The Log, Spring 2007 at p. 15). Realizing this, Cunard is
decorating the shopping arcade with wrought iron so that it will be reminiscent
of the Burlington Arcade and the Queen's Arcade in London, placing rich,
wood paneling and stained-glass ceilings in the multi-story library as in a
London gentleman's club, and using Queen Victoria's seaside mansion,
Osbourne House, as the inspiration for decorating the grand ballroom. This
harkening back to the luxury of the past will be a theme throughout the ship.
QUEEN VICTORIA, however, will not be an ocean liner pastiche. The
passengers who traveled on the ocean liners during the "Golden Age of
Ocean Travel" had to make numerous compromises due to the limits of the
available technology that today's travelers would not tolerate. Thus, what
Cunard is doing is taking contemporary technology and overlaying it with the
style of the ocean liner era.
To illustrate, at the front of the ship, there will be a three-deck high theater. It
will have a stage as large and as well-equipped as a Broadway theater. That
in itself is nothing new; NOORDAM and the other Vistas have such theaters.
However, Cunard is not decorating the room in contemporary-style but rather
seeking to invoke the feel of a grand West End theater from the turn of the
last century. Amongst other things, there will be private boxes. "What we
thought we would do is put together a little theater experience for those that
would wish to pre-reserve one of the boxes. That would involve one of our
members of staff coming to the restaurant to pick-up our guests, lead them
along to the private lounge where they could sit and enjoy an after dinner
coffee and then we would present them with some champagne, some
wonderful chocolates that they could take with them to their box to watch the
show in their own private room."
Along the same lines, on the top deck will be an area near the pool that will
be decorated like the conservatory in an English aristocrat's country house.
The difference will be that this room will have a retractable roof that will open
to the skies during warm weather. In short, "[i]t is a different feel. When you
look at the plans of the ship now compared to ARCADIA, which was going
to be QUEEN VICTORIA, they are quite different."
The ocean liner tradition is not merely a matter of decoration, it is also a
matter of the style of life onboard - the sophistication, the quality of service,
the formality, the grandeur. "That will be very much along the lines of QE2
and QUEEN MARY 2, that Cunard feel, the White Star service, white-glove
service, very much along the same style. That is what Cunard is famed for
and that's what we want to continue - - not a cruise ship feel."
This means that rather than entertaining the passengers with games designed
around who falls in the pool first, there will be presentations by the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts ("RADA"), lectures by professors from various
universities and exhibits about Cunard's history in a seagoing museum. "What
we've seen with our research over recent years is [that people who travel on
Cunard ships are] looking for authenticity and a bit of history and heritage in
what they do on their holidays. They are looking for learning and
understanding, which we offer in Cunard. One thing about Cunard that is very
unique is that it is so international in terms of its guests. And yet, even though
those guests are from all over the world, they have a like-mindedness about
them that helps them enjoy our lecture series, our RADA workshops, our
book club, our library and all those good things. With the history, the heritage
and the tradition, we are attracting a certain sort of person wherever they are
from. It is up to us to make sure that we make that very clear. It attracts
people that like that sort of feel."
Along the same lines, while QUEEN VICTORIA will have a nightclub and a
variety of bars to suit different tastes, evenings will not be tee shirts and
shorts. "We'll look to what our guests want but we will make sure that we
have those Cunard signatures of the big band balls and the 20s and 30s
music, which is the Golden Age of Travel."
The reason Cunard emphasizes tradition is straightforward. "The research that
we've done shows that people think of cruises on cruise lines as holidays.
When they come on Cunard, they think of it more as an event, it is more than
a holiday, it is something to be treasured and anticipated. So, we want to
make sure that we hold onto that difference."
there have been significant modifications so that she cannot be called just a
cruise ship. Whether she can be called a true ocean liner is a closer question.
While she is designed to cross rough seas, with a 24 knot maximum speed,
she will be no transatlantic greyhound of the likes of the UNITED STATES
(40 plus knots) or even the current Cunard fleet - - QE2 (33 knots) and
QM2 (30 knots). However, the vast majority of ocean liners never came
near achieving such speeds. "Cunard has built more ocean liners than
everybody else and every time we build one it is slightly different. When QE2
was built, [people said]: 'What is this ship? Is it a cruise ship, is it an ocean
liner? What is it?' There is always a little bit of a 'what is happening next.'
Cunard continues to evolve. She will look like an ocean liner and as far as
our guests are concerned, she is an ocean liner, as far as I am concerned."
The technological differences between QUEEN VICTORIA and modern
cruises ships are, however, secondary. "She is all about style," says Marlow.
"This ship is going to be along the lines of a traditional Cunard ocean liner with
the grandeur, the elegance, and the whole feel I think will be very different."
To begin, Cunard has taken a number of the public rooms including the
library, the shopping arcade and the grand ballroom and made them more
than one deck high. "Included within the interior are some double and triple
height spaces, many more than you normally have in a P&O cruise ship,"
Marlow notes. "The difference in the height of the rooms really changes the
feel."
But, the fact that these rooms will be several decks high does not by itself
serve to give them an ocean liner feel. Many modern cruise ships such as
Royal Caribbean's Voyager-class ships have large multi-deck areas which,
while impressive, do not, and are not, intended to give the impression of an
ocean liner. (See The Log, Spring 2007 at p. 15). Realizing this, Cunard is
decorating the shopping arcade with wrought iron so that it will be reminiscent
of the Burlington Arcade and the Queen's Arcade in London, placing rich,
wood paneling and stained-glass ceilings in the multi-story library as in a
London gentleman's club, and using Queen Victoria's seaside mansion,
Osbourne House, as the inspiration for decorating the grand ballroom. This
harkening back to the luxury of the past will be a theme throughout the ship.
QUEEN VICTORIA, however, will not be an ocean liner pastiche. The
passengers who traveled on the ocean liners during the "Golden Age of
Ocean Travel" had to make numerous compromises due to the limits of the
available technology that today's travelers would not tolerate. Thus, what
Cunard is doing is taking contemporary technology and overlaying it with the
style of the ocean liner era.
To illustrate, at the front of the ship, there will be a three-deck high theater. It
will have a stage as large and as well-equipped as a Broadway theater. That
in itself is nothing new; NOORDAM and the other Vistas have such theaters.
However, Cunard is not decorating the room in contemporary-style but rather
seeking to invoke the feel of a grand West End theater from the turn of the
last century. Amongst other things, there will be private boxes. "What we
thought we would do is put together a little theater experience for those that
would wish to pre-reserve one of the boxes. That would involve one of our
members of staff coming to the restaurant to pick-up our guests, lead them
along to the private lounge where they could sit and enjoy an after dinner
coffee and then we would present them with some champagne, some
wonderful chocolates that they could take with them to their box to watch the
show in their own private room."
Along the same lines, on the top deck will be an area near the pool that will
be decorated like the conservatory in an English aristocrat's country house.
The difference will be that this room will have a retractable roof that will open
to the skies during warm weather. In short, "[i]t is a different feel. When you
look at the plans of the ship now compared to ARCADIA, which was going
to be QUEEN VICTORIA, they are quite different."
The ocean liner tradition is not merely a matter of decoration, it is also a
matter of the style of life onboard - the sophistication, the quality of service,
the formality, the grandeur. "That will be very much along the lines of QE2
and QUEEN MARY 2, that Cunard feel, the White Star service, white-glove
service, very much along the same style. That is what Cunard is famed for
and that's what we want to continue - - not a cruise ship feel."
This means that rather than entertaining the passengers with games designed
around who falls in the pool first, there will be presentations by the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts ("RADA"), lectures by professors from various
universities and exhibits about Cunard's history in a seagoing museum. "What
we've seen with our research over recent years is [that people who travel on
Cunard ships are] looking for authenticity and a bit of history and heritage in
what they do on their holidays. They are looking for learning and
understanding, which we offer in Cunard. One thing about Cunard that is very
unique is that it is so international in terms of its guests. And yet, even though
those guests are from all over the world, they have a like-mindedness about
them that helps them enjoy our lecture series, our RADA workshops, our
book club, our library and all those good things. With the history, the heritage
and the tradition, we are attracting a certain sort of person wherever they are
from. It is up to us to make sure that we make that very clear. It attracts
people that like that sort of feel."
Along the same lines, while QUEEN VICTORIA will have a nightclub and a
variety of bars to suit different tastes, evenings will not be tee shirts and
shorts. "We'll look to what our guests want but we will make sure that we
have those Cunard signatures of the big band balls and the 20s and 30s
music, which is the Golden Age of Travel."
The reason Cunard emphasizes tradition is straightforward. "The research that
we've done shows that people think of cruises on cruise lines as holidays.
When they come on Cunard, they think of it more as an event, it is more than
a holiday, it is something to be treasured and anticipated. So, we want to
make sure that we hold onto that difference."
BUILDING UPON
TRADITION
(CONCLUDED)
TRADITION
(CONCLUDED)
The new QUEEN VICTORIA will be the first Cunard ship to bear that name but it is a name with a long history at Cunard. According to Cunard legend, in the 1930s when Cunard was building the first of its Queen-class ships, it was decided to name the new ship QUEEN VICTORIA. All Cunard ships until that time had had names ending in "IA" and this revolutionary new ship would be worthy of bearing the name of Britain's most famous monarch. However, Cunard felt that it needed royal consent to use the name and so obtained an audience with King George V, grandson of Queen Victoria. Reportedly, at the critical point, the Cunard representative said: "We would like your majesty's permission to name the ship after Britain's greatest queen." The King promptly replied: "My wife will be delighted!" Since it would not have been proper to correct the royal misunderstanding, the ship was called QUEEN MARY. |
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